Local SEO for home service businesses, without the jargon

When a homeowner needs a landscaper, they don't scroll to page two — they pick from the map. Showing up in that map pack is what local SEO is, and for home service businesses it matters more than anything else search-related.

Start with your Google Business Profile

• Complete every field: services, hours, service areas, photos of real jobs. An incomplete profile caps your ranking before anything else matters.
• Post new photos of completed work monthly. Profiles that look alive rank better and convert better.
• Ask for reviews after every job, and reply to every one of them. Volume and recency both count.

Then build pages for what you do and where you do it

One page per service, one page per town you serve. A page titled 'Landscaping in Eldridge, IA' with real project photos, local details, and reviews from that area will outrank your generic services page for that search every time. This is slow, boring work — and it compounds. The rankings you build this quarter are still sending you calls next year.

Ads stop the day you stop paying. Local SEO keeps working. You need both, but the SEO is the part that compounds.